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Mary Ann Benitez

Filipinos in Hong Kong said yesterday they were shocked over the amount of money spent at a Hong Kong auction by a Philippine government agency on a 110-year-old painting by a 19th century painter and patriot.

Parisian Life, by Juan Luna (1857-1899), was sold to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) for $6.67 million - more than three times its pre-sale estimate of $2 million - at the Christie's auction on Sunday.

But Winston Garcia, the president and general manager of GSIS, which manages pension funds for some 1.4 million civil servants, defended the purchase, saying the agency had 20 billion pesos (HK$2.96 billion) in 'idle funds'.

Mr Garcia told reporters on Sunday that he was afraid the painting would go to foreign collectors. But a Christie's spokeswoman yesterday said all seven bidders were Filipino.

The painting depicts the country's national hero, Jose Rizal, sitting in a cafe in 1892 with Luna and Ariston Bautista Lin, a Chinese-Filipino, before the trio returned to the Philippines to play their role in the revolution.

Eman Villanueva, the general secretary of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said he had no quarrel about Filipino heritage being kept in the country.

'But the issue is this Philippine corporation spending people's money of $6.7 million on an art piece in the midst of cost-cutting by the government that affects casual workers,' he said.

Cookie Micaller, a writer for a Philippine community newspaper, said: 'I believe they paid too much for the artwork because back in our country, so many people are going hungry.'

A Filipino expatriate, who asked not to be named, said: 'We thought the Philippine government coffers were empty.'

And an art connoisseur, who also asked not to be named, said the sum was 'shocking', especially as Rizal, Luna and Lin are barely recognisable.



Filipinos outraged by art purchase